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Dear Melissa,
My 8-month-old baby girl is starting to pull up on furniture! I really think she is just going to skip
crawling and move right on to walking!
WAIT!!! But crawling is so important! Yes, I am thrilled with every developmental
milestone of any kid at any age. Every
child has their own developmental path. The time it will take for children to reach certain milestones will vary. And any time a parent is
proud of their child is a reason to celebrate.
But…crawling is SO
important! I remember when both of my
children were in the 10-15 month range; I was constantly asked about walking: “Is
he walking yet, is he walking yet?” As a
mama with a background in child development, I don’t know how many times I felt
my blood pressure rise and the need to bite my tongue, rather than get on my
soap box on the importance of crawling.
“No, my 10-month-old child is NOT walking yet! And that’s fantastic, because do you have ANY
idea how important crawling is? (insert my rolling my eyes here!)”
So, here is my soapbox rant
on the importance of crawling. In 1994, the American Academy of Pediatrics
began their “back to sleep” campaign. SIDS fell by 50%, but numerous studies show that since that time, kids
are slower to meet gross motor developmental milestones.Then they added “Back
to sleep, prone to play”, but many parents were already so terrified of putting
babies on their tummies, that the message did not really hit home. And, it seems like society is so focused on
that monumental milestone of when a baby takes her first steps, that we have
forgotten the importance of crawling, rolling, dynamic sitting, etc.
Babies who go through the crawling phase will
later develop better eye-hand coordination when it comes to handwriting,
sports, playing a musical instrument, etc. There is even a link between a lack of crawling and ADHD (but the
verdict is still out on which may cause the other, you know…kind of like the
chicken and the egg). I see this in my own practice. When a
parent brings a child to me for handwriting help, one of the first questions I
ask is “Did he crawl as a baby?” More
often than not, the answer is “No, but he was walking by 11 months!”
Why is crawling so
important?
It
strengthens the whole upper extremity.
In laymen’s terms this means the whole
shoulder, arm, and hand, down to the finger tips. Even better, when a baby crawls while holding
an object (think a toy car, rattle, etc) this strengthens all of
the tiny intrinsic muscles of the hand, which are so vital for handwriting
skills later on.
It
improves eye-hand coordination.
When crawling, a baby often looks toward the
object as she is crawling to it, or looks to the object, then to her hands,
then to the object. This switching back
and forth between near/far vision helps develop a child’s eye hand
coordination and visual perception skills. When do we see this in big kids? Looking
at the classroom board, then looking at the paper on the desk, and back again. Same thing. Babies who crawled have an advantage when it comes to having the eye hand coordination needed in school settings later on.
Improves coordination of the right and left sides of the body.
Walking
primarily involves the weight shift of the right and left sides of the lower
body. This is especially true when a
baby is walking using push toys. In crawling, FOUR different sections of the body must all work together
in unison. Right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg…it's very complicated to get
all 4 areas working together in a rhythmic pattern. As a therapist, it definitely sets off red
flags when a child consistently uses atypical movement patterns as a primary means
for locomotion. An example of an atypical pattern is when a child sits and scoots on her bottom using one hand on the ground for support. Another example is when a child “crawls” but the legs don’t
take turns moving in a back and forth pattern. Rather, they move forward together
in a singular motion similar to a “bunny hop”.
Improves sensory
development.
As a child crawls with
her hands open she naturally will encounter many different textures on her
hands. Smooth, cold tile. Fuzzy carpet. Big brother’s prickly bristle block that was left on the floor. You get the idea. Again, it is hard to know which one came
first, but it is common for children who skip crawling to later have tactile sensory defensiveness, especially on their hands, such as resisting
nail grooming, hand washing, finger paint, sand play, lotion, etc.
Worried your baby may skip crawling
and move straight to walking?
Here are my top four tips:
1) Get
on the floor with your baby!
She may not want to be on the floor by
herself. Get down on the floor and play with your baby. At times, model crawling yourself.
2) Try
to gently put your child on her hands and knees.
Again,
model this together. Siblings
present? Make it a family affair! You can even put her on her tummy over a
Boppy pillow for support if her arms/legs are not quite strong enough to
support her yet.
3) Make
it a fun environment.
Make sure that there is an open space for
crawling. When next to furniture the child will tend to pull herself up and walk while holding on. Provide toys on the floor and spread
them out to promote crawling from one toy to the next.
4) Practice, practice, practice.
If your baby has started to crawl in the past
few days, but she looks like she may want to take off walking already,
get as much crawling in as you can. This
was the situation with my daughter, and we would pretend to be puppies (barking
and all!) as we crawled the full length of the house, from one room to the
other. Has your baby already started to
prefer walking? No worries! You can still encourage additional crawling
practice through crawling under chairs, under the coffee table, through tunnels,
and...it’s always fun to pretend to be puppies/kitties!
Did your child crawl or
not?
Do you think it affected later
gross or fine motor development?
I would
love to hear your thoughts!
You can send your ideas and questions to share@ChildrensTherapyTEAM.com
Resources:
Crawling and Creeping: A Milestone that should never be Missed, Center for Development Pediatric Therapies
Parenting: Do Babies need to Crawl?, Dina Roth Port, Parenting
Tummy Time for Babies, Melissa Foster, Children's Therapy TEAM Blog
Early infant crawling experience is reflected in later motor skill
development, McEwan, Dihoff and Brozvic, (1991), Perceptual and Motor Skills
